President Trump on Tuesday endorsed longtime MAGA ally Ken Paxton, dropping a bomb onto the epic battle for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas a week before the GOP runoff election.
Mr. Trump’s endorsement is a significant and potentially fatal blow to the candidacy of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who is seeking a fifth term but has been running behind Mr. Paxton in several internal GOP polls.
“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump said he’s had his “mind made up for a long time” on who he would endorse, but held off until this week, when early voting in Texas began.
Mr. Paxton, the president said, “has always been loyal to me.”
The endorsement follows a new University of Houston poll showing the race remains very close. The survey of 800 likely voters found Mr. Paxton, the state’s attorney general, leading Mr. Cornyn by 3 points.
The deep-red state voted for Mr. Trump in all three presidential elections, and the president’s endorsement could catapult Mr. Paxton to victory.
Many Republican Senators had called on Mr. Trump to endorse Mr. Cornyn, but unlike Mr. Paxton, Mr. Cornyn has not always been the president’s loyal ally.
Mr. Trump’s nod will shift the outcome of a race that election analysts said was hard to predict without the presidential endorsement.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes either way,” Texas-based Republican political consultant Vinny Minchillo said.
The two candidates have gone scorched-earth against each other as they tried to convince a narrow faction of voters that the other guy is no good.
“Being experienced and being effective is still important,” Mr. Cornyn told The Washington Times, adding a jab against Mr. Paxton. “Character still matters, too.”
Mr. Cornyn has spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising hammering Mr. Paxton over his alleged extramarital affairs, an ugly divorce filed by his wife Angela on “biblical grounds,” and a 2023 impeachment trial on charges including bribery, abuse of public trust and misappropriation of public resources.
Mr. Cornyn warned that if Mr. Paxton wins the runoff, he would lose to Democrat James Talarico in November and drag down Republican candidates lower on the ballot.
The latest poll shows Mr. Cornyn winning against Mr. Talarico in a November matchup, but only by 1 point.
Mr. Paxton is tied with Mr. Talarico in the same poll.
Texas has not elected a Democrat to serve in the U.S. Senate since 1988.
Mr. Cornyn has touted his record backing Mr. Trump but has a history of publicly opposing the president and his agenda.
He initially said he did not back Mr. Trump’s decision to run for president again in 2024. Mr. Cornyn, who later supported Mr. Trump’s campaign, said at the time he did not believe the then-former president could win again in 2024.
Mr. Cornyn touted himself more recently as a Trump Republican, pointing out his voting record supporting the Trump agenda 99% of the time.
Mr. Paxton’s campaign ads replay Mr. Cornyn publicly opposing Mr. Trump’s reelection plans and speaking out against the president’s 2016 pledge to complete the border wall.
Mr. Paxton’s ads showcase clips of the president praising him as “brave” and “strong.”
